Astrobiology
by SisterofNightmare
Summary: A Cassandra more in tune with her mothers, a girlfriend with surprising knowledge of alien life, and a Rite of Passage for them both. Sam/Janet, Cassey/Ally (Bane).
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate

"Teal'c! Any help here buddy? I'm almost out of ammo!" Colonel O'Neill shouted as he ducked back behind the wall for cover.

"I too am pinned down O'Neill." The large man answered from behind a large tree. The high pitched giggles of their attackers grew to full laughs, and both men knew they were doomed.

\- 5 minutes earlier -

Dr. Jackson stepped out of the passenger side of Jack's car, and looked over at Jack and Teal'c who had remained firmly seated for some reason. "Are you guys..." was as far as he got before turning in surprise at two giggley shrieks in time to catch two streams of frigid water directly to the chest. As the young attackers retreated to the back of the house, he turned back to the car and sputtered, "You knew that would happen!"

"Carter told me the girls plan before she left the base this morning." Jack said, laughing as he pulled two water guns of his own from the glove box.

"And you told Teal'c, but not me?"

"I was uninformed, Dr. Jackson. Two heads of brown hair hidden in the bushes indicated an ambush." The large man said, as he accepted the second weapon.

Daniel glared at his friends as he grabbed the bag of gifts from beside Teal'c, walked to the door, and knocked.

"Come on in," Janet called from somewhere inside.

He placed the presents in the small pile that had accumulated on the living room table, and walked to the kitchen where he could hear Janet working on dinner. He wrapped the petite doctor in a quick hug, and asked, "Where's Sam?"

"Out back," She responded, grinning, "Setting up stage two of the ambush." He gave her an inquisitive look, and she laughed. "Did you think she told him just to ruin the girls fun? You should be able to see the action out the back door if you hurry."

He rushed to the door, and she laughed again as she heard the sprinkler start, and the colonel cry out, "Carter!"

"Teal'c!" Ally cried out, as she recognized the large man's head before he and the colonel retreated behind the corner. Cassie and Sam looked at her, confused, as he peaked back around the side of the house.

"Ally, it is an unexpected, but pleasant surprise to see you here." The large man said, approaching the trio. This proved to be a bad idea when both young girls began firing again, forcing him to quickly find cover behind the large oak that shaded most of the yard.

Fifteen minutes later, dinner was in the oven, and Janet met the five soaked combatants at the door with a stack of towls. Jack and Teal'c were the worst off, having been wearing street cloths throughout the fight, and Janet was glad that the large man's black shirt hid his Goa'uld pouch even when wet. Cassie, Sam, and Ally were all wearing bathing suits, and Sam would not have been wet at all had she not decided to jump into the pool at the end of the fight. Janet knelt down and fluffed a towl through her daughter's hair before wrapping it around her, and wrapping another, and herself, around Sam and saying, "Samantha Carter's Super Water Turret had better be back to my sprinkler by tomorrow morning."

Her girlfriend blushed, and leaned back into her, "It will be... Should be... How long do I have until dinner?" Janet laughed, and let her go start working on it.

"So, small world Doc, it turns out that Ally here is the girl who helped Teal'c out last month when he had that weird...," the colonel paused for a second, "bug."

Cassie's face lit up, and she hugged the other girl, thanking her for saving her uncle, having heard the gist of the tale from her mother, Janet glared at him for his word choice, before turning to the girl and saying, "Well, we owe you our gratitude then. If it hadn't been for you, we may not have found him in time."

"And anyone who can kick Maybourn in the shins is cool in my book." Jack said, almost proudly, before turning to the doctor and asking, "So, what? These two go to school together?"

"Yes. Both are exceptionally bright, so their teacher had them work together on a project a few weeks ago. I think Ally is Cassie's first real friend here." She responded, smiling down at the girl that none of them could guess would change their world.

Clunky, expositiony, blarg. I don't really like how this turned out, but I can't really think of a way to fix it. It feels too much like this is just to introduce Ally to everyone else and establish her as Cassie's best friend. It is that, but it shouldn't feel like just that.

Anyway, this story will mostly focus on the events of 'Rite of Passage' and heavily feature Sam/Janet as well as Cassie/Ally and Family! SG-1 (thats how people format that kind of thing these days yes? I see things like Evil! (character x), and Sad! (character z) other places, especially over in 'Harry Potter' and 'Supernatural') as most of the time they feel like a big family on the show, but other times they don't (A large example being in 'Rite' itself) and it bugs me. I figure Sam and Janet being together would bring the group together more and I will play off of that. As a note, Ally didn't kick Maybourn in the shin on the show unfortunately, but it sets me up for something I have planned later.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate

Frasier Household, 2001

"Ok, Ally, this one's for you." Daniel said, as he drew the card. "What is your dream job."

Cassie nuzzled into her girlfriend from behind, hiding a smile in the other girls long hair. She had been hoping this card would go to her, and it looked like her birthday wish was about to come true. She perked her ears up, listening more for her family's response than the answer she well knew, and was disappointed to hear her girlfriend say, "Well, I've been focusing on biology at school recently," instead of the answer she had gotten when she had insisted almost two years ago.

"Another Doctor. Nice." Daniel said, beginning to place the card in the discard pile.

Jack's hand stopped him abruptly, and he said, "I'm going to have to call foul on that one." Eyebrows raised around the living room, and he explained, "The card says 'Dream Job', not 'Job you are currently working toward', and besides, biology is a little vague."

'Good old Uncle Jack,' Cassie thought. She kissed the back of Ally's neck, and muttered, "He's right, you know."

"They'll laugh." She hissed back.

"I don't think so."

"Hey, no collaborating over there. Its in the rules, probably." Jack said. "Come on, every kid has a dream job. CarrrrFrasier here once told me she wanted to play the saxophone." He quickly corrected himself. He had been getting better since the wedding two months ago, but he was lucky she still responded to Carter when needed.

Ally sighed, and blushed slightly, but said, "Well, my grandfather watched me a lot when I was younger and my parents were at work, and he was a pretty big sci-fi fan. He insisted that it was impossible, with all the worlds out there, for us to be the only species in the galaxy. It's a bit silly, but I've always thought of being there when we do meet them, and finding out all I can about them. My dream job is to be an Astrobiologist."

Eyebrows were again raised around the room, and Cassie broke the silence by kissing the blushing girl's cheek, and saying, "Well, I think it's cute, and attractive." Looking across at her mothers, she stifled a giggle. Sam was trying not to laugh at that last part, and Janet was glaring at the other girl, most likely wondering if they had been doing any 'studying' in the field. Teal'c was the next to speak, "A noble endeavor Ally," he looked around the room and continued, "We all wish you good fortune in your plans."

The game continued without comment after that and, after the cake, her uncles left to return to the base, and her mother asked her for help cleaning up in the kitchen. After a few minutes of silent cleaning, Janet turned to her and asked, "You didn't tell her anything, did you?"

Cassie shot her mother a glare and responded, "Yes, mom. Because I have completely forgotten the meaning of the word 'Classified,' and sex is so much more important than the safety and security of everyone I consider family."

"I guess I deserved that." Janet sighed, "You two haven't..."

"No, mom," Cassie interrupted, "I said that just to get to you. I'm sorry, I have a headache, and I, I don't know, I'm a bit annoyed you would think I would reveal any of that without permission.

Janet walked over, and felt her daughter's forehead, "You are running a bit of a fever. Why don't you go lay down a sec, I'll call Ally's mom, see if she can come pick her up."

"No, she's working a late shift tonight. That's one of the reasons she was just going to stay over. Can you," Cassie blushed, "can you just send her up when she and Sam are done talking?"

Janet smirked, "Yah, I'll send her up. But I expect you both to be fully dressed when we check on you before bed."

Cassie's blush deepened at that, and she headed for the stairs, before fighting a nonchalant look into place, turning, and saying, "Is mostly dressed ok? It is hot up there this time of year, and she did promise me a massage tonight." before the blush took back over and she practically ran up the stairs, her mother's laugh echoing behind her.

The sudden commotion brought Sam and Ally out from the living room rather quickly, and they looked at the still giggling doctor in confusion. "I'm fine." She said to there unasked question, before turning to her wife and saying, "Our daughter has inherited your wit though. She has a headache, and a bit of a fever, so I had her go lie down. You have a massage to get to apparently as well." She said, looking to her daughter's girlfriend.

Ally, to her credit, didn't even blush as she nodded and headed purposefully towards the stairs.

Twenty minutes had passed since they had sent both girls upstairs, and the Frasiers where just relaxing in the kitchen when the lights flickered, and a cry for help came from upstairs. They rushed up to Cassies room, and were greeted by a collapsed Cassie, a babbling Ally, and a burst lightbulb. "Calm down, talk slowly, and tell us what happened." Sam demanded, while Janet checked Cassie over.

Ally took a deep breath, "I was giving her a massage, hopeing it might help her headache as well. It must have worked, because she rolled over, and we started kissing, and then she stiffened up and her body produced an electromagnetic burst." Sam looked at the girl, confused, "It felt like a tingling in my lips at first, then my whole body, and suddenly I knew what it was, like the information was just shoved into my brain. The light flickered, then burst, I felt the electricity, I remembered the look in her eyes just before she collapsed, and suddenly I could diagnose it all as symptoms of an EM burst. Her electromagnetic levels are still much higher than normal, and how do I know all of this?"

The girl was near tears at this point, and Sam shot Janet a questioning glance. "I can't diagnose much from here, but she is generating a slight magnetic field. These hairclips aren't in her hair." She plucked one of the aforementioned items off in demonstration, and sighed, "We need to take them both to the base. Whatever's happening to Cassie, its effecting Allison as well, and we can't risk it spreading by taking them to a civilian hospital."

The first real chapter of plot. The card game bit feels a bit forced and rushed, but I'm my own worst critic anyway. On another note: I have not yet finished the series, and just watched season 10's 'Uninvited' this past week, and was rather disappointed that they used the more popular, but technically incorrect, 'Xenobiology', which was the original title of this fic, before doing some research to see if I was using it correctly.

Also, thank you to my reviewer gatehead81 for pointing out my misspelling of Cassie and O'Neill. The revised first chapter should go up at the same time as this new one.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate

Parts of this chapter come directly from the Rite of Passage episode.d

Wow, sorry for the wait on this one. We have been going through new employees like crazy for months and, as the one who does the training, that and the holidays have kept me tied up with 50+ hour weeks with no energy outside of work. I also have a severe case of writers ADD from plenty of ideas popping up during this timespan, so hopefully I can buckle down and give this the ending it deserves before too long.

SGSGSG

Ally looked up as the door to her isolated medical chamber opened, and smiled as she saw Mrs. Frasier walk in. "How're you doing kiddo?" Sam asked, sitting on a chair next to the bed, and passing the girl a bottle of water.

"I'm fine. How's Cassie? Did I," she paused, and started again, "Is this..."

"No. It's not your fault." Sam interrupted, "It's probably Cassie's, she still hasn't woken up though, and that magnetic field is stopping us from being able to do an MRI."

"Talk to the Veltian. They must have something that can do the same thing."

Sam looked at the girl in surprise and confusion. "The who?"

"Veltian. When your nurses were checking me over I noticed a Veltian medical device. The nobby thing with the blue lights? It checks for traces of drugs that stimulate or suppress neural relays? Anyway, their planet has been experiencing vast geomagnetic storms recently, and they have had to change up some of their medical practices to compensate. If anyone has a brain scanner that can work through a magnetic field, it would be them."

It was to her credit that the girl only looked slightly queasy and frightened, instead of in pained and panicking as she had been the first few times flashes of knowledge like this had happened, and Sam pulled her into a loose hug. "I'm going to go check on that, and see if I can get you something to eat." She said, as she got up.

As the door closed behind her, Sam sighed. Well at least they now had a species name for all that useless junk cluttering up Area 51. That nobby thing with the blue lights had been the only thing they had figured out how to work, and it wasn't like they could go back and get an instruction manual. The geomagnetic problems had killed off the native people before they got there, and they had only been there a day when the earthquakes started up again, and they had been forced to evacuate. She punched a wall in frustration, there could be something there that could help her daughter, but even if they knew which one, they couldn't tell if it was broken beyond repair or just needed batteries. She stopped in to the commissary and grabbed the girl a turkey sandwich, before making her way to the observation chamber where Jack was sitting with Cassie. "Hey, how's she doing?" She asked hopefully.

The older man just shook his head, "Doc says her fever still hasn't gone down." He looked like he was about to say something else when Janet walked in.

"Sam," She said, "I need a sample of your blood. Cassie's bloodwork shows the presence of a retrovirus."

"Didn't she just get over the flu?" The colonel asked.

"Well, whatever this is, it isn't the flu. Oddly, Ally shows no sign of it."

"Really?" Sam asked, "Not even the flu? That girl must have an immune system of steel." Her wife shot her a confused look, and she elaborated, "Well, the amount of time those two spend fused at the lips..." Janet shot her a glare, but the smirk on her face and smile in her eyes showed that the joke had achieved its intended effect. "I meant 'Hips." She smirked back, before their attention was snatched by movement from the bed.

"Mom?" Cassandra asked, obviously very groggy.

"We're here." Janet answered.

"I couldn't finish the harvest."

Janet shot Sam a confused look, and said "That's ok."

"I need to go into the forest."

Things were making less sense with every word, and Janet began preparing a sedative she had on hand, when the girl fell back into unconsciousness on her own. Sam stood up, and enveloped her wife in a hug, both of them trying not to let their emotions get to them. The energy they would take would be much better spent trying to help their daughter.

They stayed that way for a moment, until General Hammond knocked on the wall, alerting them to his presence. "How is she doing?" He asked. They filled him in on what they knew so far, and he sighed. This team had become like family to him, and it pained him to see something like this hitting so close to home, luckily he had some good news as well. "Teal'c just called from the hospital. Mrs. Martin signed the confidentiality agreement, and gave her permission for Ally to do the same." That was a relief, though more of a courtesy than anything given how much the girl probably knew with all that information floating around in her head. "Major, you have an hour to give her the tour, then I want a full update."

SGSGSG

"Do I need to put the base under quarantine?" The General asked, as Sam settled into her seat.

"It doesn't seem to be contagious sir," Janet responded, "Infact, it looks like the girls are going through completely separate things. Neither Sam or I have a trace of the retrovirus in our blood either.

"Then where did Cassandra contract it?"

Janet sighed, "My best guess would be on her home planet."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, and said, "Cassandra has not been to that planet in many years."

"Retroviruses can exist in the body, undetected, for years before showing symptoms." Janet responded, softly. "When it does emerge, it starts to rewrite the individual's DNA in order to replicate. I've compared this one with every retrovirus on record, and it doesn't match any of them." Her wife sighed again, and Sam put her arm around her, "I've been giving her antiviral medications, but the most recent tests show it's spread to her cerebral spinal fluid. At this moment, I'm more concerned about brain damage." It was only thanks to years of training that the other woman wasn't crying, and Sam was glad to see Daniel open the door, drawing everyone's attention and giving them time to compose themselves.

"I've just finished going through SG-7's, er, reports from P8X-987," he began, setting a stack of papers down on the table. "In the three months on Cassandra's planet, SG-7 witnessed 2 instances of high fever and hallucination in teenagers Cassandra's age. The villagers called it the mind fire, I found some digital video footage," He said, turning on a nearby monitor. The footage was disturbing, a young girl around Cassie's age in what looked to be severe pain, thrashing around on the ground, and the entire room seemed shocked and queasy when he turned the video off after only a few moments. "There's more but you, er, get the idea." He finished.

"Why were we not informed about this before?" Janet asked, anger coloring her tone.

"I don't know," Daniel said, "The people who went over these files probably thought it wasn't that important, with the planet practically destroyed and almost all of its population killed off."

"I am the chief medical officer of this program, I should have heard of this disease before the planet was wiped out."

Sam pulled her closer, and said, "There's not much we can do about it now, what's important is how they treated it."

Daniel looked a little nervous, before saying, " SG-7 offered medicine, but the village elders believed that these children were touched by the gods, and that interfering would tempt retribution."

After a short silence, Jack spoke up, "What happened to them?"

Daniel bit his lip, "They were sent, alone, to the forest near the village, And after several days they came back…cured."

"How?" Asked the General.

"SG-7 tried to find out, but the elders insisted the child had to make the journey alone as some sort of religious rite."

"Cassandra talked about going into the forest," Janet said.

"She was delirious." The colonel responded.

"It still might be worth checking out, Sir," Sam said.

"When we were last on P8X-987, the atmosphere had been contaminated by the Goa'uld Nirrti." Teal'c pointed out.

"Well, that…that was four years ago. The toxin could be non persistent. We can send a MALP to be sure." Sam said, not willing to let their only lead slip away.

The General sighed, "It's worth a try, now, what about Allison? How did she react when you explained things to her?

Sam took a second to collect her thoughts, before saying, "Oddly, sir. She knew some things even we didn't about our allies, but when I showed her the Gate she didn't know what it was until I told her. She doesn't know a thing about how it works, besides the very basics, but she did tell me some of its health effects." Janet's eyes narrowed at that, "Apparently long term use is capable of strengthening the users immune system and overall health, which is why none of us have caught a standard cold since we started going through regularly."

The General looked at Janet inquiringly, prompting her to say, "We had noticed something like that, but had attributed it to exposure to alien environments and increased exercise in varying conditions."

Sam regained everyones attention by saying, "The interesting bit is, this knowledge isn't current. From some of the things she has said, her information is at least about five years out of date."

"I might have something to explain that, sir." Janet said, before bringing up some brain scans on the monitor. "The one on the left is Allison, the one on the right is from when Colonel O'Neill had the library of the Ancients in his brain."

Jack looked at her sharply, "The head sucker thing? She got head suckered?"

"Something similar most likely. The brain patterns aren't a perfect match, and she doesn't seem to be deteriorating like you were."

"The information isn't outdated enough to be Ancient either." Sam added, "And she only seems to have medical knowledge."

"So, some other race with a less advanced version of the repository?" General Hammond asked.

"That would be my best guess." Janet confirmed.

"I'll put in a call to our allies, see if they know who might be capable of that. Until then, lets see what we can find in the forest." He said before dismissing them.


End file.
